I'm an animator, not a comic artist, but Nick was nice enough
to let me do the Bamboo Ben comic. The magazine only comes
out 4 times a year, so the deadline isn't TOO hectic (although
I usually bash mine out at the last minute since the work
at my animation job really IS hectic-----plus I procrastinate).

Chongolio - Thanks for the comment. I have a few more Tiki cartoon ideas sitting around that if I find the time I will try to put them together.

Benzart - I have a few old wooden pieces that seem to have termites or something in them - there is always little micro piles of wood dust around them. A potential possible cartoon idea....cracks in the wood!

I had a couple of questions regarding the cartoon creating process, so thought I would answer them here.
The cartoons are drawn in my computer.
I come up with the cartoon ideas while doodling in my sketch books.
Here is the scanned-in page from my sketch book of the original idea for the first cartoon above titled "Three Wooded Tikis":

I have a few old wooden pieces that seem to have termites or something in them - there is always little micro piles of wood dust around them.

Dinapate wrightii is a possibilty if they are palm. These are beetles that bore into the wood, mate, lay eggs and leave. The larve hatch as many as a few years later and then start to try to find their way out of the log. This is what causes the dust. They could have been in there long before it was carved. They are very active in the mid to late summer. If it's not palm, I do not know, because these bugs are specific to palm. It might be something just like them though, but specific to your type of wood. Hope this answers part of the riddle
Buzzy

Over the last few months I have been sketching out some ideas for Tiki comics that I hope to one day find time to actually complete. They will be in the vein of "what if Tikis were in other situations or events"?
I will post a few of the rough ideas here.
The first one: "Texas Tiki" The intial sketch cover idea: